Chapter Eleven: Death Wakes Up
Notes: A big thanks to my Beta Reader Daisy Rhine, if you want some more interesting reading you should check out their stories. I can never really tell which one is my favorite. So you will have to decide for yourself. They have a lot to choose from and all of them are awesome. Thank you for reading. I am surprised how this story is turning out.
The jet landed on the outskirts of the village, Maria Hill started to get up to leave, but Ariel turned to look at her and shook her head. "We may need a fast way to escape from here." The others looked at her funny, but she kept moving toward the exit of the jet. "While I can carry a few of you to safety, I will not be able to carry all of you." The doors lowered and Ariel was the first out, looking around the area she noticed all the reapers right away. Growling low, she moved toward where they were all looking at. "Okay, everyone I want you to go find the other group that got here, I believe they need help."
Ariel started toward the building, but was pulled to a stop by Ironman as he grabbed one of her arms. "What are you going to do?" He asked.
"I am going to try to stop Lucifer, and get Castiel out of trouble⦠Again." She pulled away from him and pulled her sword out from the sheath that she had wrapped it in, it wasn't the actual sheath as that was also with her armor. She would have to retrieve that at a later time, for now she had Lucifer to face off with. She turned back to look as the group managed to disappear in the seemingly ghost town.
Dean and Sam watched as the jet landed not too far from where they had been heading, the door lowered down and out stepped some of the people that they had met before along with Castiel. "They are the reason you left us?" Dean asked as he watched as the Shield agents made up rows in military formation. He looked at Castiel for an explanation.
"They are going to help us, Dean." Castiel explained as he moved along the rows, checking weapons and such things. Everyone watched him.
"Wait, since when do you know anything about weapons?" Dean asked, looking at Castiel.
"I am a seraphim, Dean. My knowledge in weapons spreads across the universe, I am a soldier. Ariel is my commanding officer she knows far more than I do." Castiel explained, propping the rifle that Coulson had up in his arms and then crushing it in his hands to prove his point. Everyone took a step back, when he turned to address them. "We are going to be facing off with Lucifer also known as the Morningstar. He is in a human vessel, like angels he has to gain permission in order to enter a human vessel. It is only planet bound angels that hold any power over the planet. Ariel is powerful enough that she holds sway over the universe." Castiel pointed out, "Whatever knowledge she has she gives to us, and we relay it to others. As you stated before angel radio is always up and running." Dean nodded his head and turned to look at Sam and the two women that had joined them. Jo and Ellen Harvelle stood waiting for them. Dean, Sam, and Bobby had warned the two women that the people who might come to aid them were supernatural beings, but none of them were expecting Shield agents to also be attending the party.
"Dean, Sam, nobody told me that you knew shield agents or that they owed you anything?" Ellen stated, lifting her shotgun up onto her shoulder. She was about to say some more but a howl tore through the air. Causing everyone to go on alert.
"What was that?" Coulson asked, shifting his gaze around the town.
"Hellhounds!" Jo stated, shifting closer to her mom as she also swept the area around them. Her gun aimed but unsure what she was looking for.
"What do they look like?" Coulson asked, wanting to know what he and his men would be dealing with.
"Don't know, they are invisible to humans." Jo answered again. "We can't really fight them hand to hand, we need to retreat." Jo stated, looking to Sam and Dean. Dean nodded, and the large group started toward the grocery store in the small town. Phil looked around as two of his men barred the door so that the Hellhounds would have a harder time getting in. Castiel was standing outside still, watching the area around them, he seemed to be rooted to the spot as he looked at seemingly empty space in the center of the street.
"What is he doing?" Phil asked, and the others couldn't really answer him because they didn't know what he was doing either. The sound of claws scraping against pavement alerted the group that the hellhounds had found their location. "Okay, any advice on how to take these things down?"
"Just try not to shoot each other, and holy fire." Was Dean's response as he pulled his shotgun up higher, looking to see if he needed to aim at the door or a side wall. Jo was about to say something else when a yelp and a thud caused the entire group to whirl around and face Castiel. Blood graced his blade and his wings were unfurled and out in plain sight.
"I thought you couldn't show us your wings?" Dean started, but Castiel held his hand up for Dean to be quiet and Dean shut his mouth right away. There were scrapes of claws and the glass doors of the entrance shatter as another hellhound leaped through it. Castiel threw his blade and the sound of a body hitting the floor and smearing blood across it allowed the group to realize that Castiel was very good at hitting his target.
"When in true form my wings will burn the eyes out of anyone who is not special enough to see them, but in human form I can manifest them into the living world only after my host has been sent to heaven." Castiel explain, Dean winced. Remembering when Raphael destroyed Castiel when Sam had opened the gates to free Lucifer. Sam also winced as well.
"Wait, does that mean that Ariel's host is also gone?" Sam asked, Castiel shook his head.
"Ariel is the only angel that doesn't need a host, since the planets were made using her own grace, she remains amongst them instead of in heaven. Those are her true forms on earth, in heaven she is far more beautiful." Castiel explained, pulling his blade out of the hellhound and wiping it off on his coat. Dean and Sam nodded, not even trying to understand what was just said to them. Another sound of glass breaking allowed the group to get back to focusing in on what is going on around them.
"Where did you get off to?" Dean asked.
"There are reapers all over, but Ariel told me to stay with you and not to fight Lucifer alone." Castiel stated, shifting his gaze to look around them. "We should head out toward their, bottle neck them and force them to come in a few at a time." He motioned toward the hallway leading to a metal freezer that was no longer working but being used as an extra storage closet. Dean and Sam looked toward the area and nodded, Phil shrugged his shoulders.
"You're the expert on this part not me." Phil told the other four humans when they looked to him to see his ideas. "Honestly, I think this is above my paygrade."
"That is exactly what we always say." Dean grumbled, but then motioned the group to follow him. Once they were inside they spread sat across the border and posted holy items along it to help keep the hounds or demons out. "How long do you think Ariel is going to take?" Dean asked Castiel as he motioned to the sound of banging on the other side of the metal doors.
"She shouldn't be long now." Castiel stated, he was standing in front of the group but shot rang out as a growling howl in the ventilation system caused the group to look up. They shifted their gaze toward Phil who was holding his weapon up at the ventilation system as black blood oozed out of it. Phil lowered his weapon and met the stares of the others evenly. Dean shot him a shit eating grin and saluted him. Phil nodded his head in reply to that.
Ariel stepped cautiously into the area where Lucifer was waiting. Her steps cautious as she approached his back, her sword sliding smoothing into her hands. She stopped in the doorway, sensing a trap being played, she looked at the floor noticing the circle etched out in oil. "Your trap was laid for a weaker angel?" Ariel questioned as took in the placement of the trap. Lucifer's back went ridged as her voice carried over the short distance of the room. He turned to look at her.
"Yes, I was expecting Castiel!" Lucifer pointed out, his gaze switching over to Meg's own as she inched her way toward the taller woman. Ariel flicked a wrist and sent Meg blasting out the window.
"Do you honestly believe that I would allow you to proceed with this plan?" Ariel stated, taking a step into the room but avoiding the circle of oil.
"You are supposed to be dead."
"Well, for a few centuries I thought the same." Ariel pointed out. Lucifer stepped away from the window.
"I am sure of it, you must be a lot harder to kill then I had assumed you would be. I will just have to try harder next time." Lucifer promised, pulling out his own weapon to face off with Ariel. They stood facing each other in seemingly a standoff. Yet, before either could blink Ariel had moved forward. Blade slicing a thin line of blood down Lucifer's vessel. Lucifer hissed and jerked away as the first contact of steel met his flesh. "You have grown, little sister." Was his statement, as he brushed two fingers across the wound and brought the bloody digits to his mouth. "But you are still too weak compared to me." Lucifer finished his tirade with a jagged slash across Ariel's side, drawing blood in a dark path of red on her shirt. It was Ariel's turn to hiss as she pulled away and swung in a graceful thrust as steel and steel met. They circled one another trying to give muscle to push the other into the circle of oil. Neither moved.
Sky glanced at the direction that her adopted mom took then over at where the avengers were heading to lend aid to the group barricaded in the grocery store. She was debating on either following her friends or going after her mom, a call from Steve caused her to race after them. She would put her faith in Ariel, after all she was an angel. Sky was almost to the group when glass shattered from a nearby four story building and rained down upon the sidewalk. She jerked her rifle over to the spot and watched as a person fell from the building and landed on the concrete below. She started toward the person but was pulled up short by Castiel. Sky took a quick look and noticed that the other members of Shield were with him and the two men she saw at the tow company and two strangers were with him. The first group caught the second group up with the news of the time. Sky looked back over to the person but Castiel shook his head no.
"That is not a human anymore. You cannot help them." Cas stated, watching as the female demon got to her feet and started running toward the front entrance of the building. A few minutes later another woman fell from the building, wings unfolding from her back to catch herself in time before she landed. Bits of fire and soot covered the dark brownish blonde feathers as Ariel came to a slow walk on the pavement instead of falling on her back or face. Sky started to run to her and Ariel waved her off, motioning that she would be fine for now.
Lucifer and Ariel were now wrestling with one another, their fists gripping as much wings as possible. Ariel had already ripped out a number of black feathers from Lucifer's wings as they grappled for throwing power. Lucifer shoved and pulled, before he stuck his foot between Ariel's legs and the two toppled backwards into the oil, having it smeared along their feathers and body. Ariel reached out a hand in a ditch attempt to break free and set the oil on Lucifer's vessel on fire. Lucifer jerked back away from Ariel, as the fire spread quickly along the oiled path, but some flames had also spread across onto Ariel's own oiled smeared body. Ariel rolled on the ground, wings flapping strongly as the fire was quickly smothered on her. Lucifer took the moment to grab her by the seams of her pants and her shirt and heave her out the already broken window. His own body smoldering from the flames.
Ariel landed hard on her left leg before her right had caught up with the rest of the body. It was not her finest landings but it would do. She started forward in a march across the street, following the smell of burning flesh and soot as well as the sight of the reapers all looking in that direction. The two groups behind her followed as well. Sky looking on horrified to see the reddened flesh on Ariel's body. Some of the feathers on the wings were singed as well, some badly and others just the tips were blackened from the flames. Sky looked around noticing that the time it had taken them to get from different areas that night had set into the city that Death visited. She shuddered at the seemingly ghost town, but kept her focus sharp.
The group came to a large patch of dirt, black and sunken in like a crater. In the crater were the town's people all dead. Sky covered her hand over her mouth to keep from gagging at the smell. Bruce looked onward in shock and sadness at such a scene. Standing at the top of the crater was a man covered in deep burn marks and boils and deep scarring, he had large black wings that were molting and ugly. Sky looked over at Dean and Sam as the two men both whispered 'Lucifer.' She shuddered again. The group drew around the pit and Lucifer in a full circle, their guns pointed at the man as Dean and Sam drew closer to the man himself. Lucifer turned when he felt his true vessel come within range. The two men stopped watching as the other man looked them over with curious delight. "Well, well Sammy you decided to come out and play." Lucifer stated, spreading his arms wide. His sharp gaze locked onto Ariel's own gaze. Sam shuddered and paled at being spoken to by Lucifer.
"You are not getting Sammy." Dean stated, pointing his gun at Lucifer and pulling the trigger. Lucifer fell down, but Ariel stood ridged as not a moment later Lucifer started to get back up again. The bullet wound healing as Lucifer laughed out loud.
"You cannot defeat me with that gun, Dean." Lucifer stated as he looked over toward the pit where the bodies were being sucked into the pit itself.
"Dean, Sam get away from the pit, he has awakened." Ariel stated, coming up the charge and pulling the two men away from Lucifer and the pit as Death rose up from the area and vanished into the twilight. The group had to look away from the bright light but when they turned around Lucifer and Death were gone. Dean turned to look at Ariel, but looked away at seeing the glowing blue eyes as Ariel tried to track where her older brother had gone.
"I think that was a bust." Sky stated, coming to stand a little bit away from where her mother and her cousins stood. The rest of the group turned and looked at her. "We need to focus on finding where this guy went off to." Sky proclaimed as she turned to start back toward the jets. Ariel nodded her head but stopped as the others started back, then turned around and headed in another direction. "Where are you going?" Sky asked.
"To get my armor." Ariel replied. Dean, Sam and the two women watched as she vanished in the darkness.
"Well, I hope you sent warning to whoever has it." Dean stated, as Castiel came to stand next to Dean and Sam. Sky turned and looked at him before nodding her head yes. "That ought to be a fun idea to see." Sam glowered at his brother but they both started back to where they had parked the cars. "At least we are not dead, and we didn't lose anyone this go around." Dean commented again, both brothers remembered losing their dear friends when on a hunt. Sam wondered if the Shield agents and the Avengers would help them out once more or if it was a onetime deal. Sam also hoped that Ariel didn't do anything to harm whoever had her armor, and he hoped she didn't give herself anymore enemies after she got her armor. After all she already had enough enemies as it was.
